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September 26, 2025, 03:08:09 pm

Author Topic: How to speed up essay writing  (Read 6674 times)  Share 

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Yitzi_K

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How to speed up essay writing
« on: August 19, 2010, 09:59:59 pm »
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I'm pretty good at writing essays, b"H I'm consistently getting high marks on all the ones I've done for homework. However, these essays usually take me far too long to write. A text response can easily take me two hours or more. I know in the exam you only get roughly one hour per essay, so obviously I need to speed up my essay writing considerably.

Does anyone have any tips on how to do this? Obviously the more I practice the quicker I should get, but I was wondering if there are any other methods.

Just to clarify, my problem is not the actual writing. I can churn out 1000+ words of text in an hour relatively easily. My problem is with the formulating of the essay in my head, this just takes me too long.

Also, what length should A+ essays be? I've heard they should all be at least 1000 words, but I know someone who got 44 in English who said he only had about 700 words per essay.
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pooshwaltzer

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Re: How to speed up essay writing
« Reply #1 on: August 19, 2010, 10:37:21 pm »
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Given topic/prompt, use the following methodology as a means for comprehensive planning (pre-write up):

1.
INTRO
PARA1
PARA2
PARA3
CONCL

2.
INTRO broken down into primary contention and augmentative rhetorical priors (1 or 2)
PARA1-3 ... topic sentence and wrap up availed for each therefore depicting 3 unique propositions along a single, central line of thought and argument.
CONCL is an enlightenment opportunity to summarize PARA1-3 in a manner which connotes with the INTRO and without admitting new literary elements.

3.
Write up 2 sentences for each of the 5 paragraphs (INTRO, 1-3, CONCL).
Determine whether they're suitable as a start or wrap up for the paragraph and assess for grammatical correctness.
Start filling in the gaps based upon your starter feed, ie. those 2 seed sentences per paragraph

EG Topic: The cat sat on the mat. Discuss.

INTRO:
There are 2 identifiable entities of concern - a cat and the mat.
We wish to analyze the relationship between our object (mat) and the subject (cat) the likes of which are connected via some act of trangression (sat).

PARA1:
The objectivity of our topic cannot be refuted. The cat indeed sat on that mat. Conversely, "the mat was sat on by the cat" also renders consistency.
A reasonable assertion would be extended along the lines of structural punctuality backwards and forwards given the prompt.

PARA2:
There is insufficient context to determine veritable cause and effect. The authenticity of the purported incident cannot be reconciled in the absence of further disclosure.
We can only derive from the facts provided that it was the cat which sat on the mat and not the other way around. Any other statement tendered would risk becoming unreliable.

PARA3:
Order and precedence is of priority concern. We have 2 discernible entities and one instance of positive action, the conduct of which had bought to bear the relationship between those aforementioned entities.
The mat came before the cat as it would be inextricably improbable for a sitting cat to, without cause, all of a sudden have a mat appearing beneath it.

CONCL:
It may be ascertained with reliable assurance that the relationship commenced at that initial point of inception whence said mat became the object of buttressing support for said cat.
The cat was the instigator whose evocative imposition had bought forth substance on the matter of an identifiable relationship in existence between itself and the matter upon which it decidedly sat.

Chavi

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Re: How to speed up essay writing
« Reply #2 on: August 19, 2010, 10:44:10 pm »
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All the 3 essay sections follow a formula. At the end of the day, you're simply writing a variation of what you've written a hundred times, but making minor adjustments for the topic/prompt/contention.
Have the structure in your head, and the rest is just fill in the blanks.
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Re: How to speed up essay writing
« Reply #3 on: August 19, 2010, 10:47:34 pm »
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LOL @ the cat sat on the mat thing :D
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olly_s15

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Re: How to speed up essay writing
« Reply #4 on: August 19, 2010, 11:01:20 pm »
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All the 3 essay sections follow a formula. At the end of the day, you're simply writing a variation of what you've written a hundred times, but making minor adjustments for the topic/prompt/contention.
Have the structure in your head, and the rest is just fill in the blanks.

agree totally with this. i find writing new essays can take me 2hours+ too although im not that worried about it because in the exam you will basically just churn out what you've already written with minor altercations to suit the prompt
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Re: How to speed up essay writing
« Reply #5 on: August 19, 2010, 11:07:02 pm »
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Just keep in mind that you will write faster as well under the time pressure and also the slight adrenaline rush you get as a result. I sometimes took 5-6 hours to write a single essay, but once you start mentally writing faster by repeating what you've already written, together with the benefit of physically writing faster as well, then you should be fine.
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iffets12345

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Re: How to speed up essay writing
« Reply #6 on: September 05, 2010, 03:18:57 pm »
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I'm with Yitzi, i can't write essays in an hour! But, when I was in year 10 I used to be able to. It's weird and frustrating. I've got the same problem in that I just take ages to think of the next sentence or make it relevant...usually I find my sentences all sound the same structure wise so i need to pause and think of how to repharse things and make it relevant to the topic. I think my biggest problem is dealing with the topic in enough detail, I simply can't think of what content to write.. not to mention vocab issues.

Do you guys just suggest we learn how to write to time first then perfect content of the essay? at this rate I'm not going to get anything up in the exam.
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akira88

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Re: How to speed up essay writing
« Reply #7 on: September 05, 2010, 03:54:28 pm »
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I'm with Yitzi, i can't write essays in an hour! But, when I was in year 10 I used to be able to. It's weird and frustrating. I've got the same problem in that I just take ages to think of the next sentence or make it relevant...usually I find my sentences all sound the same structure wise so i need to pause and think of how to repharse things and make it relevant to the topic. I think my biggest problem is dealing with the topic in enough detail, I simply can't think of what content to write.. not to mention vocab issues.

Do you guys just suggest we learn how to write to time first then perfect content of the essay? at this rate I'm not going to get anything up in the exam.
It'll actually be better the other way round, that is, perfect the content of the essay, then write fast. There's no point writing fast if it's full of crap. So once you get your head around your ideas etc, you can then try and speed up your writing.
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iffets12345

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Re: How to speed up essay writing
« Reply #8 on: September 05, 2010, 09:34:03 pm »
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but...what if on the day on the ewxam i end up with three incomplete essays? =/. Better to have average and complete than above average but incomplete?
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Re: How to speed up essay writing
« Reply #9 on: September 05, 2010, 09:40:39 pm »
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I would think the intro and body paras account for the majority of the marks and the conclusion the least, so if you think you're not gonna finish maybe skip the conclusion and go on to the next essay and if you have time go back to the conclusions. Although this might not help that much because you're ideas might be lost and then you might have to skim your essay b4 writing those conclusions consuming 1-2 minutes of your time
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Yitzi_K

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Re: How to speed up essay writing
« Reply #10 on: September 05, 2010, 09:45:23 pm »
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I did a practice English exam today, the full 3.15 hours.

I did manage to get all three essays complete, however they were all about two pages long, which I'm sure is not enough. Having said that, the context piece was a content issue, I had the time to write another half-page but I had nothing left to say.

My biggest problem really is sentence structure and vocab choice, I spend way too long agonising over individual words and sentences.
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RainerWolfram

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Re: How to speed up essay writing
« Reply #11 on: September 05, 2010, 09:46:45 pm »
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but...what if on the day on the ewxam i end up with three incomplete essays? =/. Better to have average and complete than above average but incomplete?

It's difficult to say. I didn't end up writing the conclusion for two of my essays (Context, Text Response) but I still did okay and managed to pull out an A for the English Exam. My context essay was really short too ~400-500words but my text response was slightly longer ~900 words.
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Re: How to speed up essay writing
« Reply #12 on: September 05, 2010, 09:53:22 pm »
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Yeah conclusions don't have the bulk (if any) of you're intentions or points so it's better to have 3 incomplete essays (with no conclusions) as opposed to 2 complete essays and 1 without a conclusion and body para
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iffets12345

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Re: How to speed up essay writing
« Reply #13 on: September 05, 2010, 11:05:58 pm »
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Really? my friend told me intros are the worthless mechanical bits and conclusions are the bits where u can prove yourself...
thanks for your input though. I tend to take ages thinking of my intro and first para, and then after that it flows normal, so i think the problem is the starting bit.
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Mulan

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Re: How to speed up essay writing
« Reply #14 on: September 05, 2010, 11:14:00 pm »
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but my history teacher said that teachers look at your intro and conclusion first, and then if they think your writing is good enough, then theyll be bothered reading the rest (body paragraphs)